Welcome

The North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) is an independent group of influential business leaders,
who work together to promote the sustainable economic development and long-term well-being of North West England.
It was launched by HRH The Prince of Wales at Blackburn in July 1989.

The membership of NWBLT is made up of senior executives from the region’s major businesses – for a full list of members
please click on "Team Members" above. It operates as an independent business
voice for the whole North West, thus providing valuable strategic support for the region’s Local Enterprise Partnerships.

NWBLT also sponsors and administers the annual Lever Prize to stimulate collaboration
between the North West’s cultural and business communities (with support from Arts & Business) and an annual
Schools Science Competition for pupils from years 7 and 8 in North West schools.

NWBLT welcomes hearing from business leaders and representatives of organisations who share our vision of working together and contributing to the success of the
North West as a great place in which to live and work. Our Business Leadership Forum is open to anybody with a
bona fide interest in the long-term well-being of the region.

Latest News

Following its successful appearance at the International Festival of Business in Liverpool last Summer the North West Energy Squared (NWE2) Model has started its tour of the rest of the Region. It is a 3.5 x 1.5 metre physical, interactive model of the North West which includes a video with a voice over commentary explaining its objectives to examine the possibility of building connected tidal gateways throughout the region.

The Model is due to be located at RBS, Spinningfields in Manchester from 2nd March to 20th March when it is open for viewing by the public. There will be a number of VIP viewings organised for interested parties.

Manchester Museum’s Director Nick Merriman was presented with the Lever Prize trophy, following the Museum’s recent win of the prestigious Lever Prize 2015. The trophy was presented by Juergen Maier, Managing Director of Siemens Industry UK and Chairman of the North West Business Leadership Team at a special reception held in the Museum’s Living Worlds Gallery. The event, held on 5th February, was attended by senior leaders from the arts and business sectors in the region, as well as senior figures from the University of Manchester.

The Lever Prize also comes with a cheque for £10,000 and the opportunity for the Museum to collaborate on partnership programmes with some of the region’s most influential businesses during its winning year.

This meeting will include a preview of the NWBLT’s proposed “Business Manifesto for England’s North West”, which we plan to publish prior to the General Election, and also a presentation on “How franchising can help grow the North West’s economy” by Robert Dancy. The latter will be given by Robert Dancy, a senior business and franchise consultant with nxo Ltd – Rob has worked in a wide range of business and franchise roles across the UK, both as franchisor and franchisee, and believes franchising to be a viable growth option across a wide variety of business services.

The Forum takes place at 5pm for 5.30pm and should be of particular interest to those involved with economic development strategies here in the North West.

The first Forum meeting of the New Year will be taking place at United Utilities, Haweswater Conference Centre, Lingley Mere, Warrington at 5.00 for 5.30pm on Wednesday 14 January 2015 when the speakers will be Philip Cox, CEO of the Cheshire and Warrington Enterprise Partnership, and Carmel Booth , Interim Executive Director of the Atlantic Gateway Partnership.

Manchester Museum, for the project Real Life Science, has won the prestigious Lever Prize 2015. Now in its ninth year the Lever Prize is judged by the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) in partnership with Arts & Business. As winner the Museum will get a cheque for £10,000 and the opportunity of collaborating with some of the region’s most influential business leaders.

The Lever Prize is an annual award given to arts organisations in North West England who are judged to be regionally distinctive with international or potentially international significance, and who show a high calibre existing work and can demonstrate exciting future developments.

Young people from across the North West Region have been battling it out to be crowned winners of the prestigious North West Schools Science Competition. At the competition’s recent final, the winners each received an iPad Mini and £250 for their school to spend on science equipment. The competition aims to encourage more pupils to consider science as a career.

The winner from Year 7 was Alice Brown from Cheadle Hulme School and the Year 8 winner was Louis Swift from Sandymoor School in Runcorn.

Now in its sixth year, the competition is hosted by the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) in conjunction with the STFC Daresbury Laboratory. Pupils in Years 7 and 8 from across Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside were asked to submit an essay stating “Why I want to be a scientist” in less than 500 words. From there a 12-strong shortlist was drawn up to participate in the ‘Competition Final’ held at in the Lecture Theatre STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire.

12 pupils from across the North West Region have been shortlisted to take part in the prestigious North West Schools Science Competition presentation evening on 8th December. The winners each received an iPad Mini and £250 for their school to spend on science equipment. The competition aims to encourage more pupils to consider science as a career.

Year 8
Alan Dickinson, Atherton Community School
Adam Hodkinson, Sandymoor School
Caitlin Hollies, Sandymoor School
Patrick Lunt, Neston High School
Louis Swift, Sandymoor School
Thalia Thompson, Sandymoor School

A delegation of NWBLT members met today with George Osborne MP. The group included Juergen Maier (NWBLT Chair and CEO of Siemens UK), Geoffrey Piper (CEO of NWBLT), Simon Allport (North West Senior Partner EY) and Alan Torevell (Chairman of Dewhurst Torevell). They discussed the NWBLT’s Manifesto for the North West and pressed for business priorities ahead of the Autumn Statement.

Prior to this private meeting the NWBLT organised a lunch for North West MPs in the Churchill Dining Room at the House of Commons. The event was hosted by Jake Berry MP and sponsored by EY, Dewhurst Torevell and Manchester Airport Group

NWBLT members bosses swapped the boardroom for the stage, performing poetry, drama, music and dance in a bid to be crowned the winner of The eXec-Factor. The event was part of Contact and the North West Business Leadership Team celebrating a year of working together, following Contact winning the NWBLT’s Lever Prize 2014.

The competitors were Juergen Maier, chief executive of Siemens, UK; Charles Lauder, joint-managing director of Talawa Consulting and chair of the Contact Board; Geoffrey Piper, chief executive of North West Business Leadership Team; Jonathan Collins, corporate social responsibility manager at Electricity North West and the Loose Covers, the band fronted by Rod Coombs, deputy president and deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Manchester.